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  • It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)

    It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)

    140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW

    Have you ever had a Halloween in which you failed to watch this? Feels kind of incomplete, doesn’t it? 3rd Peanuts special is 1 of the best.

    It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

    Spoiler-free Movie Review of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown:

    Best piece of trivia I came across when researching this review? It was mentioned in the 20th anniversary Peanuts documentary and is also mentioned on imdb: “After this special originally aired, children all over the country sent candy to Charlie Brown out of sympathy.” I just love that…

    It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

    I know I certainly always identified with Charlie Brown as a character growing up. I remember telling my dad during one of these specials that one of the kids at school said that I reminded them of Charlie Brown. I think Dad was offended on my behalf, but I didn’t really take it as an insult. I think all of us have moments of feeling like good ol’ Chuck. I don’t think I want to know a person who can’t empathize with Charlie Brown.

    It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

    I’m not sure I could pin down which of the Peanuts specials is my favorite. A Charlie Brown Christmas was the first and greatest – a show that transcends a simple tv program – but this one really remains special.

    It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

    So much about the program has entered popular culture that it’s hard to really see it with fresh eyes unless you watch it with a child (highly recommended). Then you can see the complete delight in watching Lucy yank away the football, getting kissed with dog lips, and the pure and beautiful conviction of Linus that the Great Pumpkin will rise out of the pumpkin patch, if only he can find the most sincere one…

    It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

    It’s a real testament to Charles Schultz’s writing that these stand up as well as they do, despite the fact that they don’t shy away from dating themselves. Think of Snoopy’s antics as a World War I flying ace; this was a dated reference even when the show aired in 1966. And the Peanuts strips and animated specials are full of references that may be completely lost on modern audiences. It’s irrelevant – Schultz’s work remains about a boy named Charlie Brown. You don’t need to pick up the references to athletes of the day or anything to get the jokes or to understand his world.

    (Actually, I was a real fan of the early days of air warfare as a kid; I actually had paintings of famous WWI battles on my walls, showing the last flight of Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron), his Fokker Dr. I being shot down by a Sopwith Camel near the Somme River, among others. So I was the exception, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. This is great comedy.)

    It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

    Happy Halloween, Now Very Bad readers! I hope your pumpkin patch contains not a sign of hypocrisy.

    [Cue fade out credits…]

    Just wait till next year, Charlie Brown. You’ll see! Next year at this same time, I’ll find a pumpkin patch that is *real* sincere and I’ll sit in that pumpkin patch until the Great Pumpkin appears. He’ll rise out of that pumpkin patch and he’ll fly through the air with his bag of toys. The Great Pumpkin will appear and I’ll be waiting for him! I’ll be there! I’ll be sitting there in that pumpkin patch… and I’ll see the Great Pumpkin. Just wait and see, Charlie Brown. I’ll see that Great Pumpkin. I’ll SEE the Great Pumpkin! Just you wait, Charlie Brown. The Great Pumpkin will appear, and I’ll be waiting for him…I’ll be there! I’ll be sitting there in that pumpkin patch… and I’ll see the Great Pumpkin. Just wait and see…

    Poster:

    It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

    Trailer:

    Bechdel Test:

    Pass

    The Representation Test Score:

    Yeah, I’m not doing this for a Charlie Brown cartoon…

    [schema type=”movie” url=”http://www.peanuts.com/” name=”It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” description=”The Peanuts gang celebrates Halloween while Linus waits for the Great Pumpkin.” director=”Bill Melendez” actor_1=”Peter Robbins” ]

    Main Cast Peter Robbins Charlie Brown (voice), Christopher Shea (as Chris Shea) Linus Van Pelt (voice), Sally Dryer Lucy Van Pelt (voice), Kathy Steinberg (as Cathy Steinberg) Sally Brown (voice)
    Rating Atp
    Release Date Thu 27 Oct 1966 UTC
    Director Bill Melendez
    Genres Animation, Short, Comedy, Family
    Plot The Peanuts gang celebrates Halloween while Linus waits for the Great Pumpkin.
    Poster It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
    Runtime 25
    Tagline Peanuts, pumpkins, and pleasure for the whole family! (2008 DVD re-release)
    Writers Charles M. Schulz (written by)
    Year 1966
  • The Crow (1994)

    The Crow (1994)

    140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW

    Impossible to watch without being aware of the great talent that was snuffed out, but may we all leave such an indelible impression. #RIPLee

    Spoiler-free Movie Review of The Crow:

    When a tragedy precedes the release of a film, it’s hard to avoid becoming maudlin about it or lifting the work onto a pedestal. So it’s important to not canonize the late Brandon Lee or consecrate The Crow. It’s a good movie, not a great movie. That doesn’t mean I don’t love it – I do. But let’s keep our heads about this – it’s a very mixed bag.

    The simple fact of the matter – the non-revisionist truth – is that I’d never even heard of Brandon Lee before he died. I guess one of my friends who watched martial arts movies might have mentioned him at some point, but my love of martial arts movies doesn’t extend beyond Big Trouble in Little China, so I would never have seen him in anything. And he wasn’t particularly famous or heralded for his acting. So is the legendary status bestowed on him and the film simply because of his tragic death at age 28? Absolutely not. This is a breakout performance far above anything he’d even hinted at previously, making the accident even more heartbreaking.

    The Crow is based on a black & white graphic novel of the same name by James O’Barr. It’s a grim book, and I’m guessing the idea of adapting it into a feature film wasn’t an easy sell.

    TO BE CONTINUED…

    Poster:

    Trailer:

    Bechdel Test:

    Pass

    The Representation Test Score: D (3 pts)

    (http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)

    The Crow Representation Test

     

    [schema type=”movie” name=”The Crow” description=”A man brutally murdered comes back to life as an undead avenger of his and his fiancée’s murder.” director=”Alex Proyas” actor_1=”Brandon Lee” ]

    Main Cast Brandon Lee Eric Draven, Michael Wincott Top Dollar, Rochelle Davis Sarah, Ernie Hudson Sergeant Albrecht
    Rating R
    Release Date Fri 13 May 1994 UTC
    Director Alex Proyas
    Genres Action, Fantasy
    Plot A man brutally murdered comes back to life as an undead avenger of his and his fiancée’s murder.
    Poster The Crow
    Runtime 102
    Tagline It Can’t Rain All The Time
    Writers James O’Barr (comic book series and comic strip), David J. Schow (screenplay) …
    Year 1994
  • Addams Family Values (1993)

    Addams Family Values (1993)

    140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW

    Less of a fully realized picture than a series of gags, there’s nothing particularly wrong with this one – it just lacks any real purpose…

    Addams Family Values

    Spoiler-free Movie Review of Addams Family Values:

    It’s fine. Really, it is. It’s not bad. It just isn’t really good, either.

    Addams Family Values

    The first Addams Family film was really well done and made a boatload of money, so of course there was going to be a sequel. They even set it up at the end of the first picture with the tease that Morticia (Anjelica Huston) was pregnant. So the new movie was certain to be about the Addams baby. That storyline is ok, even if it doesn’t have much stamina.

    Addams Family Values

    No, the problem, if there is one is in the sameness of the script. Writer Paul Rudnick did extensive rewrites on the original before taking over sole credit on this picture, and the whole thing just seems a little too familiar. The plot once again revolves around Fester (Christopher Lloyd) and the family is once again separated from him by manipulative outside forces. It’s just kind of lazy.

    Addams Family Values

    I suppose another way to look at it is Addams 2.0, taking all the things that went right in the first film and honing them further. And if that was a tv program that would be fine. I guess I just hoped for more.

    Addams Family Values

    There is a fantastic subplot about the kids being sent to a summer camp for privileged kids that very nearly makes the entire film worthwhile. Wednesday (Christina Ricci) takes center stage, which is entirely correct, and the cast of campers includes David Krumholtz, Christine Baranski & Peter MacNicol – all wonderful here. The musical production is enough fun to make you forget how lifeless the rest of the picture is.

    Addams Family Values

    Definitely worth a watch, Addams Family Values was a bit of a disappointment to me, in no small part due to the fact that so many critics insisted that the sequel was superior to the original. Nonsense…

    Poster:

    Trailer:

    Bechdel Test:

    Pass

    The Representation Test Score: C (6 pts)

    (http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)

    Addams Family Values Representation Test

    [schema type=”movie” name=”Addams Family Values” description=”A comical Gothic horror-movie-type family tries to rescue their beloved uncle from his gold-digging new love.” director=”Barry Sonnenfeld” actor_1=”Anjelica Huston” actor_2=”Raul Julia” actor_3=”Christopher Lloyd”]

    Main Cast Anjelica Huston Morticia Addams, Raul Julia Gomez Addams, Christopher Lloyd Uncle Fester Addams, Joan Cusack Debbie Jellinsky
    Rating PG-13
    Release Date Fri 19 Nov 1993 UTC
    Director Barry Sonnenfeld
    Genres Comedy, Fantasy
    Plot A comical Gothic horror-movie-type family tries to rescue their beloved uncle from his gold-digging new love.
    Poster Addams Family Values
    Runtime 94
    Tagline The Family Just Got A Little Stranger.
    Writers Charles Addams (characters), Paul Rudnick (written by)
    Year 1993
  • The Addams Family (1991)

    The Addams Family (1991)

    140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW

    Wonderful realization of Charles Addams characters with near perfect casting in Sonnenfeld’s directorial debut. Creepy. Kooky. Spooky. Ooky.

    The Addams Family

    Spoiler-free Movie Review of The Addams Family:

    My dad had this old book of Charles Addams’ illustrations. As I recall, the book looked like a third-hand copy from someone who possibly had three hands, all of them clumsy. It was tattered, with a damaged binding and smelled old. To this day I don’t know if it was actually supposed to be like this or was just a poorly cared for yard sale prize. Either would be fitting, because The Addams Family has always felt like some bizarre foundling, while simultaneously being the product of the well-established studio system.

    The Addams Family

    Addams, a cartoonist (often for The New Yorker), based his most famous creations on the old mansions in his childhood home of Westfield, New Jersey and that such a morbid bunch of cartoons should become so popular is a testament to his unique talent. I may never fully understand why television executives thought “hey, this would make a great family tv show”, but I’m glad they did.

    The Addams Family

    In fact, not only did the characters make for a tv show, they made for several, including an animated series, guest appearances on shows as subversive as Scooby-Doo and The Flintstones, as well as having a comeback or two. I guess with that track record that a feature film was inevitable and not as odd as it would be if you pitched the idea today. I strongly doubt that even Tim Burton (originally tapped to direct this film) could walk into a major studio with an idea about a gruesome & possibly supernatural family of arguable sadists and leave with a contract.

    Fortunately, in the late 1980’s producer Scott Rudin was able to get a greenlight for The Addams Family from Orion Pictures based on the show’s lasting appeal. Paramount would end up releasing the picture due to Orion’s money problems, but it’s unclear exactly who is to blame for the inclusion of music by MC Hammer…

    The Addams Family

    I wasn’t able to find out why Burton ended up not directing (Batman Returns conflict? Just a guess.) but it left the door open for the incredibly talented cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld, who made his directorial debut here. His work with filmmakers like the Coen brothers surely provided the experience in making a quirky and dark comedy, but he really takes embraces it here with a fun-loving style that would go on to serve him well in films like Get Shorty & Men In Black. Sonnenfeld was an outstanding DP and even retained that role (if not the title) on The Addams Family when his first two cinematographers left the project. It shows – the irreverent camera work is one of the best features of the film.

    The Addams Family

    Caroline Thompson (Edward Scissorhands) & Larry Wilson (Beetlejuice) put together a nice script that preserves the spirit of the show and the cartoons. It really is surprisingly faithful. Enough so that there was a bit of a problem with rights, as the filmmakers had obtained clearances from the Addams estate but not the show directly; the show’s executive producer, David Levy sued for compensation for his ideas from the tv program.

    The casting is one of those perfect ensembles that you’re lucky to get once in a blue moon. Raul Julia inhabits Gomez Addams with all the humor that tv actor John Astin once displayed, but with twice the passion. Anjelica Huston absolutely is Morticia, and Christopher Lloyd energetically portrays Uncle Fester. And of course, young Christina Ricci makes Wednesday the most enjoyable character of all.

    The Addams Family

    The plot is fairly good, as far as it goes, providing the characters with something to do while getting on with the real business of being creepy, kooky, mysterious & spooky. Recommended…

    Poster:

    Trailer:

    Bechdel Test:

    Pass

    The Representation Test Score: C (6 pts)

    (http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)

    The Addams Family Representation Test
    [schema type=”movie” name=”The Addams Family” description=”Con artists plan to fleece the eccentric family using an accomplice who claims to be their long lost Uncle Fester.” director=”Barry Sonnenfeld” actor_1=”Anjelica Huston” ]

    Main Cast Anjelica Huston Morticia Addams, Raul Julia Gomez Addams, Christopher Lloyd Uncle Fester Addams/Gordon Craven, Dan Hedaya Tully Alford
    Rating PG-13
    Release Date Fri 22 Nov 1991 UTC
    Director Barry Sonnenfeld
    Genres Comedy, Fantasy
    Plot Con artists plan to fleece the eccentric family using an accomplice who claims to be their long lost Uncle Fester.
    Poster The Addams Family
    Runtime 99
    Tagline It’s not the same old Thing.
    Writers Charles Addams (characters), Caroline Thompson (written by) …
    Year 1991
  • Shocker (1989)

    Shocker (1989)

    140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW

    In preparation for review, watched yesterday with wife. Conversation went like this, “But I really remember enjoying it in high school”…

    Shocker

    Spoiler-free Movie Review of Shocker:

    …And then there are those movies that you shouldn’t revisit. The ones that looked horribly stupid but you watched anyway and found something about them that you liked. If you’re lucky enough to have that occur, don’t press your luck. Be grateful that you were pleasantly surprised and leave it at that. Because I guarantee you that lightning will not strike twice…

    Shocker

    Shocker is a slasher horror movie written and directed by Wes Craven, creator of the Nightmare on Elm Street series. It’s the story of Jonathan Parker (Peter Berg), a high school football player and foster child whose town is being ripped apart by a serial killer who is attacking entire families. For some reason Jonathan seems to have some psychic link with the killer and in a dream actually appears at the scene of the killer’s new crime – the killer can actually see Jonathan. Unable to prevent the killing of most of his adoptive family, Jonathan is able to lead his foster father Lt. Don Parker (Michael Murphy) to the killer, Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi), who is finally apprehended and sentenced to death by electric chair. Through some bizarre circumstances, Pinker seems to make a deal with a television set and achieve some odd form of immortality that has something to do with electricity. Sometimes. Sometimes he’s just body jumping through physical contact. It’s all a little muddled.

    Shocker

    The cast is pretty good, as far as it goes. Watching for the first time in 25 years, I was stunned to see that the psycho who anchors the picture is Mulder & Scully’s boss from The X-Files. Peter Berg (great in A Midnight Clear) is pretty capable as lead here, although I never did figure out how he’s still in high school and also has his own place. Michael Murphy is Michael Murphy, which is always a good thing. Also check out “Theodore” Raimi in an early role.

    Cami Cooper is the perfect girl next door, one of those actors that makes you run to imdb because you’re sure they are familiar. (Yes, idiot, she’s in that stupid slasher movie you’ve seen 20 times – this one!) Interestingly, though, in looking her up, I found that she left the biz to become a lobbyist then Director of Legislative Affairs for the National Association to Protect Children – I know nothing about it but it looks interesting. Nice second act…

    Shocker

    I’m admittedly no horror expert, but I think Shocker may be the first time that Craven really went for the humor. There is of course always comic relief in his and all horror films – screaming and laughter pair so nicely – but this is a real understanding of how ridiculous horror movie conventions are and Shocker dabbles in the kind of self-deprecation that would be so effective in Scream a few years later.

    Shocker is just funny. It plays things straight for the first act, which is solid slasher film material. But it begins to get irreverent in the second act as the killer jumps from body to body to amusing effect. By the third act the thing goes right off the rails and is just ridiculous, but gloriously so.

    Shocker

    It really is an odd collection of different feels. By the end you can have completely forgotten just how bloody and grisly the movie was at the outset. This may be why I remember Shocker rather more fondly than it played for me now. There was an exhilarating thrill to slasher movies when I was in high school. That mix of hormones and energy, fueled by too much soda and Chinese food, needed the loud and obvious diversions provided by horror movies. This one was supercharged by the pinnacle (or nadir) of hair metal that 1989 could provide. The tagline for the film is “No More Mr. Nice Guy”, and the film features an adequate if unnecessary Megadeth cover of the Alice Cooper tune. Alice himself appears on a background tv set in one of my favorite moments of zen from this movie – the diner’s tv is recounting the recent grisly murders, but when the bereaved family members walk in the staff thoughtfully turn on something more appropriate – Alice Cooper videos…

    That scene is a wonderful sampling of the film – terror with an undercurrent of self-aware mockery. When I tell you that this movie was aggressively promoted in the pages of comic books, you should get a sense of what you’re in for. I can’t say it ranks as highly as some of the horror classics, or even horror comedies like Evil Dead 2 or Bad Taste, but fans of the genre would surely enjoy this one.

    Poster:

    Trailer:

    Bechdel Test:

    Fail

    The Representation Test Score: D (1 pts)

    (http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)

    Shocker Representation Test
    [schema type=”movie” name=”Shocker” description=”After being sent to the electric chair, a serial killer uses electricity to come back from the dead and carry out his vengeance on the football player who turned him in to the police.” director=”Wes Craven” actor_1=”Peter Berg” ]

    Main Cast Michael Murphy Lt. Don Parker, Mitch Pileggi Horace Pinker, Peter Berg Jonathan Parker, Sam Scarber Cooper
    Rating R
    Release Date Fri 27 Oct 1989 UTC
    Director Wes Craven
    Genres Comedy, Horror, Thriller
    Plot After being sent to the electric chair, a serial killer uses electricity to come back from the dead and carry out his vengeance on the football player who turned him in to the police.
    Poster Shocker
    Runtime 109
    Tagline On October 2, at 6:45 AM mass murderer Horace Pinker was put to death. Now, he’s really mad.
    Writers Wes Craven (written by)
    Year 1989